MUSIC .

Staying Power

Mickey Roker and the M&M program teach lessons in perseverance.


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Published: Nov 4, 2008

jazz/community

NOTEWORTHY: Intercultural Family Services' Music & Mentorship program celebrates a decade of service.

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"I'm 76 years old," says Mickey Roker, "and there comes a time when you got to slow down."

Roker may not sit behind the kit at Ortlieb's with the frequency that he used to, but Philly's elder statesman of the drums is far from retired. His performance this week as the honoree at a fundraiser for Intercultural Family Services' Music & Mentorship program is sandwiched between a brief tour of the mid-Atlantic states and a gig in New York with vibraphonist Joe Locke, with whom he'll also head to Italy over the holidays. He's also endeavoring to form a group of kids at his South Philly church into a drum and bugle corps like the one he played in as a child.

That urge to pass his knowledge along to a younger generation is one of the reasons Roker is an ideal focus for this year's fundraiser, says Music & Mentorship coordinator Shannon Pelcher. Unlike previous honorees Odean Pope and Dave Burrell, Roker has never been an instructor in the program, which provides low-cost music classes for low-income families. But the drummer has taken countless young Philadelphians under his wing over the years in between his stints with legends of jazz, ranging from Dizzy Gillespie to Sonny Rollins to Oscar Peterson and countless others.

Music & Mentorship was initially funded with a two-year William Penn Foundation grant, but when that ran out, the parents of children in the program pleaded that it be continued. By implementing nominal fees and holding fundraisers, the program is now celebrating 10 years and hoping to expand for those students who have stayed with it and are outpacing the beginner-to-intermediate-level instruction. Besides Pope and Burrell, past instructors have also included guitarists Monnette Sudler and Matt Davis, some of whom are expected to return for this 10th-anniversary performance.

The goal of M&M is "mainly to address the lack of arts education and music education within the public school system," Pelcher explains. "The simple fact is that middle-income families can supplement that, but it's not possible for low-income families to pay $25 an hour for their kid to take a lesson and then purchase an instrument."

The cooperative nature of the program has also fostered a sense of community in IFS' West Philly digs, with parents of students agreeing to volunteer one Saturday per semester, and the classes offering the kids an opportunity to work together.

"The group setting," Pelcher says, "which initially grew out of financial and logistical necessity, has created an interesting curriculum because the kids are now learning cooperative skills, choosing songs together and working as a band."

And according to Roker, the dedication that these students show will pay off in the long run. "The benefits are enormous, man, if you're serious and you love what you're doing. That's the main ingredient, because it's too hard if you don't love it. I don't have the answer to life, but if you love doing what you're doing then the benefits of studying music will last you all your life."

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

Music & Mentorship Fundraiser, Wed., Nov. 12, 5:30 p.m., $75, with Mickey Roker and Music & Mentorship Students, World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-386-1298, ifsinc.org.